ANKARAâ€“Turkey’s top court has ruled that Islamic headscarves violate secularism and cannot be allowed at universities, deepening a divide between the country’s Islamic-oriented government and secular institutions.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government had tried to allow hijabs at universities as a “matter of personal and religious freedom.”

But yesterday’s Constitutional Court verdict said constitutional amendments that were passed by parliament in February went against secularism.

The headscarf issue is an explosive one in Turkey, where the government is locked in a power struggle with secular groups that have support from the military and other state institutions.

The verdict is likely to bode ill for the government. Turkey’s chief prosecutor is seeking to disband the ruling party on grounds that it is “the focal point of anti-secular activities” in a separate case at the Constitutional Court.

The prosecutor â€“ who has also asked that Erdogan and other party officials be banned from politics for five years â€“ has cited attempts to allow headscarves at universities as a case in point.

* TURKEY: ongoing terror against Christians

Former priest turned Muslim turns out to be military man

* scum

A former Turkish priest who had been working with foreign missionaries and then converted to Islam was actually an intelligence officer with the Turkish Land Forces, a Turkish daily has reported, but he has denied acting as a “provocateur.”

The story indicated that the Emekli SandÄ±ÄŸÄ± office confirmed that Ã‡Ä±nar is a member of the Turkish Land Forces. The Emekli SandÄ±ÄŸÄ± is only for public personnel and individuals who cannot pay their own premiums.

Speaking to Hilal TV, Ã‡Ä±nar denied that he was a “provocateur” and said he was only reporting on missionary activities in Turkey: “I am a Muslim, I have been revealing missionary activities in Turkey. I haven’t done anything illegal.”

Turkish PM holds emergency meeting after headscarf defeat

Can the Islamization of Turkey and the destruction of its secular system be halted?

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will hold an emergency meeting with senior aides Friday after Turkey’s top court upheld a ban on the Islamic headscarf in universities, dampening his party’s hopes of surviving a pending closure case.Erdogan cancelled his programmes in Istanbul and was to return to Ankara to chair the meeting of his Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) at 3 p.m. (1200 GMT).

He also scrapped a trip to Switzerland on Saturday where he was to have watched Turkey’s first Euro 2008 match against Portugal.

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2 thoughts on “The Re-Islamization of Turkey”

Mustafa Kemal’s biggest mistake was that he didn’t banish Islamania altogether. He should have known better because sooner or later Islamania is bound to swallow secularism-history had shown that even up to his time.